This flurry of debuts left the Wolverhampton angler “on cloud nine” during a 48-hour social session at the Swansea complex.

He said: “I didn’t know what to expect as I’d never fished there before. We headed off to the pegs we had booked and began to unload the van and set up camp.

“As it was only a 10-acre water with maximum casts of 65yds cast I opted to take my 10ft Nash Scope rods coupled with Daiwa SS2600 reels spooled with 12lb line, which were all new and un-christened.”

Having cast out and scattered about 30 freebies around his spots in peg 10, Gary didn’t have to wait long for the action to begin.

“Within the first hour I had two bleeps on my right rod and the bobbin stayed up and the rod tip was slightly bouncing, so without any hesitation I lifted the rod and was into my first White Springs fish, my first fish of the year and my first fish on the new rods.

“As the tip bent round I knew I was into a large White Springs lump and after about 10 minutes a very large bar of gold was looking angry in the bottom of my net.”

At 40lb 13oz it is a new top weight for the fish, known as Bruno, and it beats Gary’s previous pb by 11lb.

Bruno beat Gary's pb by 11lb

Gary, who went on to lose two fish and land two upper-double mirrors, added: “I'm still on cloud nine and in awe of having my first UK forty. It’s still sinking in! I would like to thank Matthew Harris for the netting and Royston Butwell for the photos – landing a new pb in that company made it even more special.”

CARPFEED VERDICT

It often seems that new rods and reels take a long time to ‘christen’ with a decent fish, but not so for Gary, who clearly enjoyed a brilliant 48 hours at White Springs’ Specimen Lake. The venue has really switched on in the past week, producing plenty of its bigger fish including a number of thirties.